The present invention is directed to surgical devices and procedures. In particular, the invention provides instruments for curetting, bone distracting and removing tissue from a surgical site. In one embodiment, the invention is particularly advantageous for removing disc material from an intervertebral disc space.
Surgical instruments and techniques are known for performing procedures at and around vertebral bodies, including the intervertebral disc space. Such techniques include, for example, intervertebral disc decompression, vertebral fusion, etc. Often times such procedures include removing some or all of the disc material between vertebrae. Many known systems for removing disc material require multiple instruments or multiple steps for cutting the material to be removed, curetting the surfaces surrounding the disc material and removing the cut or curetted material from the disc space. The need for multiple instruments or multiple steps reduces surgical efficiency and can increase the overall time spent performing the procedure.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for instrumentation and methods which reduce the time and steps needed to perform cutting, curetting and/or removal procedures in surgery. The present invention is directed to addressing this need.
The present invention provides instrumentation and methods for cutting, curetting and/or removing material from a surgical site. The invention also provides for distracting vertebrae that are adjacent an intervertebral disc space.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a surgical instrument having a proximal end spaced apart from a distal end along a shaft having a longitudinal axis passing therethrough. At the proximal end, the instrument includes a handle for operating the device. At the distal end, the instrument includes a working head including a blade for cutting, a distracting dimension for distracting and, in some embodiments, a collecting element to collect cut material and facilitate removal of the cut material from the surgical site.
In a typical embodiment the blade of the working head includes a leading and a trailing end and has a serpentinoid or xe2x80x9cSxe2x80x9d shaped configuration. A first cutting surface extends along a first edge from the leading end to the trailing end of the blade and a second cutting surface extends from the leading end to the trailing end along a second edge of the blade. If present, the collecting element is arranged to overlie some or all of the serpentinoid configuration at the leading end of the head. In addition, the working head can have a height dimension, width dimension and a diagonal dimension such that the diagonal dimension is greater than the height dimension which is greater than the width dimension.
In use, rotation of the working head of the instrument around a longitudinal axis in a first direction provides for cutting and/or curetting materials surrounding the blade. The cutting surfaces are configured and arranged in such a manner that when rotated in an opposite direction the cutting edges are not oriented for cutting material surrounding the blade. In addition, when positioned in an intervertebral disc space having a disc height less than the diagonal dimension of the working head, rotation of the instrument provides for distraction of the vertebrae adjacent to the disc space when the diagonal dimension of the blade is oriented at or near parallel with the longitudinal axis of the spinal column. The instruments of the invention can be particularly advantageous for use in cutting and/or curetting material from an intervertebral disc space.